I watch a lot of cookery competition programmes which usually means a lot of dishes presented to the judges often begin with the Dreaded ‘D’ word. Deconstructed.
I know deconstructed food usually looks very pretty, very chefy, blah blah blah, but what about the taste? Matt from Masterchef Australia can often be heard reciting “if you deconstruct it, it must taste better than the original.”
And there’s my problem. In a lot of cases, and in my humble opinion this is not possible.
Take for instance a fruit crumble. Yes, you could have stewed that fruit to a melting consistency but still with the perfect amount of bite, and the perfect amount of sugar and spice.
And yes, you could have created a buttery, crumbly, nubbly, just sweet enough crumb to be rained beautifully on to the plate alongside a dainty quenelle of vanilla ice cream.
Maybe a dried slice or two along with dehydrated powder both made from the original fruit will adorn the creation.
I agree that all of these components plated (on a plate that looks like it was recently thrown by the chef) together will be delicious, but NOT as delicious as the original.
You see, the absolute hands down, no other contender for the gold medal in the ‘fruit crumble components olympics’ is that layer that is missed in the deconstruction, and that’s the ‘top of the fruit and bottom of the crumble’ layer. That cooked but soft crumble infused with sticky fruit is THE best, and I doubt many would disagree.
Then take a savoury pie. Well, please take the one I’m about to describe and never let such a thing grace a dinner table again…
We went to a country pub for dinner a few years ago and a friend ordered ‘steak and ale pie’. Now. Our friend has a hearty appetite so was looking forward to his traditional meal with some anticipation.
When the kindly waiter placed the plate down in front of him our friend’s excitement appeared to wane. Imagine his disappointment (and talk about not managing expectations with that ‘pie’), because it was effectively a steak and ale stew with a triangle of separately cooked puff pastry on top. The menu should definitely have read ‘deconstructed steak and ale pie’, or perhaps ‘I can’t be bothered to make an actual pie’ pie.
And why was this pub’s offering so disappointing? It was disappointing because, you guessed it… the best bit of a pie — and I’m talking a proper pie with a pastry top AND bottom — is any morsel of pastry that has been hugged by the filling.
It’s not just about pastry or just about filling, there was nothing wrong with the stew, or the pastry, it just wasn’t pie, because it’s all about the symbiotic relationship that is formed between filling and pastry when they’re cooked. Cooked together. Not separately.
You could then take a cottage pie.
Deconstructed it’s just savoury minced beef and mashed potatoes, but in its original form there is the ‘no layer’s land’ where everything joins in and you get soft creamy mashed potato infused with savoury meaty goodness.
So in conclusion, anything that has a few components (and perhaps is usually called a pie, crumble, or tart) can be deconstructed, but should it?
IMHO the reason the original works is because of the combinations and amalgamations. And you can still do the deconstructy (yes, I know that’s not a word) thing, but I would be making a small portion of the original too so that I could use those ‘no layer’s land’ bits as part of the deconstructed dish.
Actually scratch that. I would just be making an apple crumble (with custard, please), a shortcrust pastry steak pie (with mash, please), and a cottage pie (with heaps of roasted roots, please). You really can’t beat the originals!
I think my case is rested. 😉
The More You Think... 